<Z e h> J o u r n a l

LIBERTY, N.Y., July 13 -- (27 Tammuz 5767) -- Ha Gaon Rosh Yeshivah Yisroel Belsky, a Torah giant of world-class renown, has launched a campaign to mobilize Torah-observant voters in New York to defend the sanctity of marriage.

The Rosh Yeshivah's call comes in response to the passage of a controversial bill by the New York State Assembly at the close of last term. Under the bill from the Assembly, a homosexual relationship would be given recognition as a valid form of marriage. Torah-observant voters stand united to oppose the recognition of a homosexual relationship as a valid form of marriage, in any shape or form whatsoever.

The Rosh Yeshivah writes that before the Almighty brought vengeance down upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, these people had regarded a homosexual relationship as a valid form of marriage. The Empires of Greece and Rome, as well, had considered it acceptable, before these empires declined and descended into obscurity.

The campaign is aimed to demonstrate that opponents of marital sanctity are out of step with New York values. Tax dollars from Torah-observant communities across the New York City area are filling the State Treasury, from Staten Island, through Bensonhurst, Midwood, Borough Park, Crown Heights, Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Washington Heights, Riverdale, Kew Gardens, Kew Gardens Hills, Far Rockaway, Great Neck and the Five Towns, among others.

Ha Gaon Rosh Yeshiva Yisroel Belsky is acknowledged as one of the greatest living authorities on Torah law. The Rosh Yeshiva is a leader of one of the oldest and most prestigious academies of Torah learning in United States, Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, in Brooklyn. The Rosh Yeshiva provides Torah guidance as one of the chief Torah authorities to the Orthodox Union.

ADDENDUM: NO ISSUES OF CHURCH AND STATE ARE INVOLVED IN DEFENDING THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE. Reviewed and approved by Ha Gaon Rosh Yeshivah Yisroel Belsky. 1. What is the sanctity of marriage?

The basic unit of human civilization is the natural family, consisting of a man, wife, and children. Society grows through the relationships formed by family bonds from men and women coming together to start new lines of familial descent. It is a natural unit of government grounded in the most basic biology of every species of mammals on planet earth. It is also the foundation of clear lines of identification, from the public law of property inheritance, to the personal matters of tracing genetic traits and inherited personality characteristics.

Opponents of marital sanctity are attacking the foundations of the society itself. Any bill that attacks marital sanctity, threatens to introduce confusion and create a host of problems, from inheritance law to medical awareness of genetic disease, to the undermining the personal pride of upcoming generations of Americans who would build their own homes of natural families. Opponents of marital sanctity would also unleash generations of children raised in confused homes forever plagued by a cloud of doubt over their lineage.

2. Why worry about what the government calls marriage?

The political leaders of this state may currently lack clarity on the issue of improper sexual unions and may therefore be unable to recognize the threat and take proper action against it. If a homosexual relationship may be considered a legal marriage, in any shape or form whatsoever, our communities are put at risk by the rise of unacceptable values and perverse lifestyles. This corrupt behavior may, God forbid, affect our own children and safety, as the society as a whole may begin decaying.

Furthermore, New York State does not need to endorse this behavior. When the state votes into law to recognize a certain class of people, that gives these people credibility. It also has the effect of silencing dissent. To recognize a homosexual relationship as a valid form of marriage, means to say, with the force of law, that it is improper for anyone else to say that homosexual relationship is unacceptable. The attack on marital sanctity is a subversive strike to silence time-honored traditions of moral opposition to deviant sexual behavior.

New York City is generally extremely liberal, but even liberalism has outer limits. Our adversaries are now telling the Senators to "vote their conscience" on this issue, as if their values were the real moral truth. As the descendants of Yisrael, we may have an obligation to protect our own neighborhoods by telling our Senators what the Almighty, in His Torah, tells us what their conscience says.

3. Why is the state involved in marriage in the first place?

The basic unit of society, the natural family, is the natural structure of government through which new citizens, taxpayers and voters are brought into the world and educated with societal values and mores. The opponents of marital sanctity are attempting to blur the definition of marriage. It is appropriate that this attempt to blur the distinctions in marriage is waged by and on behalf of homosexuals, who are perverts who enjoy perverting concepts as well as perverting their relationships and their bodies.

The opponents of marital sanctity want to make New York senators believe that that the requirements for marriage consist of nothing more than of a person's bond of love for another, a desire for fidelity, and manipulating the other person's genitals. There is no basis to define homosexual relationship as marriage. Instead of fostering the stability of the natural family, homosexuality upsets the harmony of society by confusing basic biological roles. The relationship between a man and a wife brings forth children. The relationship between homosexuals brings forth only disease and moral corruption.

Even the greatest of all societies who thought they were so enlightened that they need not define the marriage as the natural family, such as the Greek empire and the Roman empire, fittingly became sterile relics that lost their vitality and soon declined into obscurity.

4. Shouldn't we empathize for people who experience shame and humiliation due to their deviant relationships?

There is a fundamental distinction between compassion for all people, regardless of their personal circumstances and problems, and tolerance of different lifestyles, on the one hand, and giving encouragement and lending credibility to practices that are antisocial and morally destructive, on the other.

No one is advocating the enactment of new sodomy laws, that deviant relationships should be made illegal, and those who engage in deviant relationships punished by force of law. New York State allows these people to freely associate and engage in whatever sexual practices they wish to engage in, in the privacy of their own homes. However, opponents of marital sanctity are seeking more than protection of their alleged right to engage in their homosexual behavior, they are looking for New York State to bless that relationship by recognizing it as a valid form of marriage. The efforts to attack marital sanctity must be answered with a resounding "No."